Gulf Shores couple hopes Chinese drywall nightmare near an end

View full sizeLawyer Eddie Sexton looks over a sheet of Chinese drywall Friday removed from the wall of the master bedroom of Terry and Nancy Pampel in Gulf Shores. Nancy Pampel said the family has had health problems and appliances had broken down due to corrosion from the drywall fumes since the house was built in 2006. (Press-Register/Guy Busby)

GULF SHORES, Alabama — After 5 years, 4 destroyed air-conditioning systems, 3 hospital-grade air filters and a lot of health concerns, Nancy Pampel said Friday that she hoped her worries were nearing an end.

Two building inspectors removed a sheet of drywall in her master bedroom. On the back of the panel were 2 words that her lawyer, Eddie Sexton, said formed the root of her problem — “Knauf-Tianjin.”

The house that Nancy Pampel and her husband, Foley dentist Terry Pampel, built as a Gulf Shores dream home is one of hundreds of Alabama structures involved in a lawsuit over defective drywall, Sexton said. On Friday, it was one of the first Alabama homes to be inspected as part of a settlement with Knauf, the German company that manufactured the building material in China.

Under the settlement, Knauf will pay to tear out the drywall and other damaged parts of the house and replace them, while also paying residents to live elsewhere.

Steve Mullins, a Mississippi lawyer also active in the case, said Baldwin County has a particular concentration of the homes, in part because a great deal of construction was going on in the area in 2006.

Mullins said a cash settlement is likely to be offered to people who fixed their own houses or who have moved out of problem structures that contained Knauf drywall.

Inspections like the one Friday at the Pampel home are to ensure that drywall there was made by Knauf, not another entity — such as the Chinese firm Taishan — which hasn’t agreed to a deal.

“Those are the people who are really in a bind,” Mullins said, because it is not clear if Taishan will be able to dodge liability because of its overseas status. Knauf, in contrast, has substantial U.S. operations.

Pampel said she did not know that Chinese-made drywall was being used when their house was built in 2006. Soon after moving in around Labor Day, they began to notice problems.

“We noticed a smell from the very beginning, but I thought it was something like new carpet,” she said. “Then we had appliance problems and air conditioning problems.”

After the third time the air conditioner went out, she said, someone told them about Chinese drywall.

The drywall releases fumes that can corrode soft metals, such as copper and silver used in electrical wiring and air conditioning coils, Sexton said.

Pampel said they also noticed health problems, such as headaches and insomnia. “When we would go out of town for a few days, they would go away,” she said. “We’ve been told there aren’t any long-term problems with this, but I don’t know what to believe.”